1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to caps for bottles which contain a variety of materials, such as drinks, liquid medicines or liquid chemicals, therein and, more particularly, to a cap device for such bottles, which is capable of mixing an additive contained therein with a material contained in a bottle to prepare a mixture in accordance with a simple rotating action of the cap device relative to the bottle, performed by a user, thus allowing the user to easily prepare the mixture just before taking or using the mixture.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, most conventional disposable bottles circulated and sold in markets each contain therein only a single kind of material, such as a drink, a liquid medicine or a liquid chemical, and are closed by caps at mouths thereof. When a user wants to add an additive to the material contained in such a capped bottle so as to prepare a mixture prior to taking or using the mixture, the user must add the additive from a separate container to the bottled material after removing a cap from the bottle. Therefore, it is necessary for manufacturers of the additives and the bottled materials to separately contain such additives and materials in separate containers and bottles prior to marketing them, thus undesirably wasting natural resources due to the production of the separate containers and capped bottles. In addition, the adding of the additive from the separate container to the bottled material to mix them after removing the cap from the bottle is inconvenient to the user in that the user is forced to separately purchase and handle the additive container and the bottle.
Furthermore, it is extremely difficult for most users to add a precise amount of the additive from the separate container to the material contained in the bottle, and so that the user roughly measures the amount of the additive to be added to the bottled material. Therefore, in the case of mixing of an additive with a bottled drink to produce a mixed beverage, the rough measurement of the amount of the additive may result in change in taste and quality of the mixed beverage. In the case of mixing of an additive with a bottled liquid medicine or a bottled liquid chemical to produce a mixed medicine or a mixed chemical, the rough measurement of the amount of the additive may result in incomplete dissolution of effective ingredients of the additive in the medicine or the chemical and a failure of accomplishment of desired medical or chemical effects of the mixed medicine or the mixed chemical.
Of course, when mixtures are prepared by manufacturers at factories and are marketed in a bottled state, in place of allowing users to mix additives with bottled materials to prepare mixtures just before taking or using the mixtures, it is possible to avoid the above-described problems experienced in the mixing of the additives with the bottled materials performed by the users. However, the mixtures which are prepared by the manufacturers and marketed in the bottled state are problematic in that the effects of ingredients of the bottled mixtures may be gradually degraded with progressive passage of time, in addition to change in colors of the mixtures. Furthermore, the bottled mixtures may generate floating matters and deposit therein with gradual passage of time.
In an effort to overcome the above-described problems, the inventor of the present invention proposed a cap device for bottles, which is capable of mixing an additive contained therein with a material contained in a bottle to prepare a mixture, in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2002-31470. In the above cap device, a plurality of radial ribs are provided at a valve means, and are supported at outside ends thereof on an inner surface of a neck of the bottle. However, since the outside ends of the above radial ribs are formed as free ends, the radial ribs may be easily bent or deformed. Therefore, the valve means may be easily displaced in the neck of the bottle.
Furthermore, it is necessary to completely separately store the additive in the cap device and the material in the bottle, such that the additive is not undesirably added to the bottled material. Therefore, a sealing means for allowing the additive and the material to be completely separately stored in the cap device and the bottle is required.
That is, it is necessary to accomplish an airtight or watertight sealing effect at a junction between a part of the cap device containing the additive therein and another part of the cap device which communicates with the bottle containing the material therein, thus preventing an undesired mixing of the additive with the bottled material and thereby preventing any physical or chemical change in the additive and the bottled material due to the undesired mixing of them. When the airtight or watertight sealing effect at the above junction is accomplished, the operational effect of the cap device is enhanced.